


The Crow: Mourning

by Viaxial



Category: The Crow (1994), The Crow - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fantasy, Other, Revenge, Sibling Love, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-09 09:10:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16446959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viaxial/pseuds/Viaxial
Summary: "People once believed that when someone dies, a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes, something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest. Then sometimes, just sometimes, the crow can bring that soul back to put the wrong things right."Claudia is given one night to put her own soul to rest, and to take the lives of the people who took one that was most precious to her.





	The Crow: Mourning

**Author's Note:**

> The Crow is one of, if not my favorite movie. The thought of how deeply one person can love another, so much so that they can be brought back from the dead from the strength of that love, that bond, it was my favorite part. I've seen all the other ones and while of course the first is the best (and only one worth acknowledging), I really appreciated that the next movie was not about romantic love, but was about the love a parent feels for a child. I wanted to explore another type of love, the love that can be held between siblings. And for the longest time I thought maybe I could publish this story differently and make it so that it appeared like an homage to The Crow but was different, I realized there was absolutely no way I could do that without receiving some sort of cease and desist letter or being outright sued for copyright infringement/plagiarism. So I decided to finally accept it as a work of fanfiction within the universe and post it into this small corner of the internet without anyone noticing and get the idea out of my head. But if you've noticed, hey thanks.

    The first thing that came back to Claudia was sound. In the darkness, there was a distant shuffling sound that she couldn’t quite identify. Her mind was clouded, and she couldn’t currently form a coherent thought. After what could have been a few minutes or a few hours, she managed to realize that she was surrounded by something. Her hand twitched, and then her leg as feeling slowly began to creep it’s way back into her limbs. Whatever it was, it covered her whole body.

_“Bag”_ the word popped into her head. She was in some kind of bag, and was suddenly desperate to get out. Her left arm jerked upwards, and then more shakily felt around her covering. Her right arm was slow to move, but eventually the feel of plastic gave way to a rough line of fabric surrounded by what felt like metal.

_“Zipper”_ was her next thought. Claudia moved her hands towards her head and wiggled them around at the top of the bag before the had managed to move the zipper down enough for her to poke a finger out. She managed to pull the zipper down past her face, and she groaned when her eyes she hadn’t realized were opened stared directly into a harsh white light. She squeezed her eyes shut for a few minutes, then continued to work the zipper down. When it had gotten to her midsection, she sat up and promptly fell off of the table she’d been on.

    Claudia grunted as she hit the floor, dizzy and still a little pained from the light. Everything about her felt off, like she’d forgotten every motor function she’d ever learned. Opening her eyes the tiniest bit, she could make out the fuzzy outline of what could be a chair, and a door that was slightly ajar. Claudia allowed herself a moment to compose herself, though she could really only think in bits and pieces. She realized that she was naked, and that she had no idea where she was.

    Moving slowly, she eased herself upright and then to her feet, gripping the table she’d been on for support. There was a disgusting metallic tang her in mouth and her body felt like it was vibrating, but she was stable for now. Eyes adjusted, she could see that she hadn’t been on a table that stands in the middle of a room, but one that pulled out of many small individual freezers. On the chair she had seen earlier was a white lab coat discarded in haste.

    Morgue. She was in a morgue, but how did she get there? She grabbed the coat and put it on over herself, then stepped out of the room. To her left was a staircase that lead upwards, and while directly in front of here there was another room. On her right was another hallway that seemed to stretch endlessly into dim light before becoming a fork. Something in Claudia was pulling her down the hallway to the right, and so she went. Wherever she was was silent, as she did not come across another person. The feeling of being pulled in a certain direction grew stronger, until she realized that she could hear a faint tapping of something on a glass surface. Claudia reached the end of the hallway and turned right again, the tapping sound growing louder and a bit more insistent. She opened the door of what appeared to be an office on the left hand side and looked up to a window to see a small black bird tapping its beak against the glass.

    Once Claudia had entered the room, the bird stopped tapping against the window and seemed to look directly at her. It cawed once and flapped its wings. Without knowing why, Claudia knew that the bird was guiding her and helping her find a way out. She pulled one of the office chairs over to the window and peered out. The bird cawed again but hopped out of the way. The window appeared to be level with pavement, so Claudia realized that she must be in the basement of a building. The bird tapped its beak against the glass, seeming impatient.

    Claudia undid the lock on the window and pushed it open. With almost no strength in her arms it took her nearly three tries to pull herself up and out onto the street. Once free she lay on the ground panting from the effort.

    “Where am I?” She whispered, attempting to get use to the voice that must’ve belonged to her. Her thoughts were becoming clearer, though she could remember nothing prior to waking up on the table. She new she was in a city; her city, where she’d grown up, though she couldn’t call the name. She also knew that it wasn’t safe to be lying down in nothing but a lab coat protecting her modesty, and so she got back up again. The last rays of the sun were rapidly disappearing, and it would soon be dark.

    Without knowing exactly where she was going or why, her legs back moving on their own, guiding her to an unknown destination. The bird, which was a crow as her mind recalled, took to the sky and flew ahead of her.

* * *

 

    Claudia followed the crow through back alleys and between buildings, ducking to avoid people when she could and pulling the lab coat down as far as it would go when she couldn’t. People stared, but said nothing when she quickened her pace to get past them. The sky was dark when she stopped in front of a building that looked moments away from being condemned. Claudia stood beneath an awning as rain began to fall lazily around her. She knew without understanding that the door would be unlocked, and she entered the back of a lobby. To her left were a set of elevators that if she hadn’t known were broken, she would have never trusted to ride them up. Moving as quickly as possible, she walked to the stairs ahead of her and began to climb.

    On her way here more of her general memories had come back to her: her name was Claudia, she lived in this building on the 5th floor, and that there was someone very important she had to get back to. She had no idea who, but she knew her heart ached for them and she was desperate to see them again. As she climbed higher and higher she could hear sounds through the cardboard thick doors that were familiar and foreign to her at the same time. On the second floor was a couple arguing very loudly, and on the 3rd and 4th floors were people playing very loud music. Her anxiety grew as she moved up the floors until her heart was nearly in her throat, and she didn’t realize it but she had started to run up the stairs as quickly as she could, wanting very much to see the person whose face was fuzzy in her mind, but she knew she cared very deeply for.

    Reaching the 5th floor, Claudia nearly leaped from the top step and half jogged, half ran towards the apartments that were at the end of the hall with a large window displaying the dull brick work of the apartment building next door and a fire escape. The crow fluttered onto the fire escape and watched Claudia with one eye. She stopped in front of a door that had a 5F hanging crookedly from it, and hesitated before knocking gently. But Claudia had been working her way into a nervous wreck on the way up, and the gentle knocking grew into a louder pounding of her palms against the wood.

    “Alright asshole I’m coming!” A voice yelled from the other side of the door. Claudia froze, as she recognized the voice but didn’t know if this was the person she’d been so intent on finding.

    “Who the fuck are-” the door swung open and the angry man who’d been speaking was silenced instantly. His hazel eyes went wide and he took a step back upon seeing Claudia standing there.

    “What the hell is this, what’s going...” The man could not finish his sentence. How could he, when for all intents and purposes a ghost had suddenly appeared outside of his apartment?

    Claudia took one look at the man and a name popped into her head. His name was Jace and he was not the person she was looking for, which filled her with a great sadness. Images popped into her head of the two of them, of them driving somewhere together and another of them laughing. Though this was not the person Claudia’s heart yearned for, she knew this man was important to her.

    “Jace?” She said hesitantly. The man blinked and took another step back, still reeling from the sudden appearance of his best friend.

    “Am I dreaming? What, how, what are you doing here Claudia? This isn’t real, is it? Am I going crazy?” Jace took a step back further into his apartment, nearly bumping into a couch. His face wavered between confusion, sadness and fear.

    “Jace?” Claudia said again. She took a step inside, and this time Jace did bump into his couch.

    “What the fuck are you doing in my living room Claudes?”

    “I- I don’t know. I just remember waking up in a bag somewhere on a table and, and then I climbed out and I ended up here.” Claudia approached slowly, shutting the door behind her. Both people looked at one another as if they couldn’t believe the other was real. “What happened?”

    Jace eyed Claudia warily, then stretched out a hand to lightly tap her on the shoulder.

    “Jesus fuck Claudes.” He whispered, more to himself than anyone. “How the hell is this happening?”

    “Can you tell me what happened? I don’t remember anything before I woke up.” Jace moved his attention from her general dishevelment to her face.

    “Don’t remember anything? Are you serious?” Jace asked. Claudia shook her head. “Claudes you… Claudes you were dead. I mean, you are dead, or at least you should be hell I don’t know.”

    “Dead? What are you talking about?” Claudia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How could she be dead if she was standing right here? And while she couldn’t recall specifics, she knew she had had a childhood and had grown up around here, and that she had been close friends with Jace for a very long time. Jace, and then there was someone else.

    “What do you mean what am I talking about? You died three weeks ago, I,” Jace’s jaw tightened. “you were shot. I saw it on the news, I had to ID your body. Yours and your sister’s.”

    At the word sister, Claudia’s mind exploded. Images of a younger teenager with auburn hair and dimples flooded her mind. Memories of her sister rushed back to her at once, and she staggered back from the force of them. Her sister, doing mundane choirs around the house and singing, her sister’s smile and her bright personality that could cheer up anyone instantly.

    “Oh my god, my sister. I have to find her, Jace I need to find her right now!” Claudia’s voice broke from the panic. Her eyes darted around the room as she searched for a way out. This was the person she had been looking for, the person her heart missed the most.

    “Whoa Claudia hey, hey!” Jace grabbed Claudia’s arms to prevent her from freaking out further. Her eyes were wild and filled with panic.

    “I need to find her, she needs me.”

    “Slow down.” Claudia began to struggle against Jace’s hold.

    “I need to find her right now!”

    “Claudes, your sister was shot too.” Jace’s voice was quiet. Claudia immediately stopped struggling and looked up at him, horrified. “She was killed along with you.”

    “No, but, no that can’t be. If I’m here then she must be too and I have to go find her, I need to protect her I have-”

    “She was cremated just a few days ago.” Jace’s voice wavered, and he could no longer hold Claudia’s gaze. “One of your distant relatives has the ashes.”

    Claudia went limp. Jace eased her onto the ground and then kneeled beside her.

    “But how did this happen?” Claudia whispered. She felt like a husk that could be blown away at any moment.

    “It was the gang we’d been dealing with.” The mention of a gang brought back a vague sense of familiarity to Claudia. “You went there to tell them you were going to be out soon, and they kidnapped you both and killed you.”

    “This is too much. I don’t know what to do.” Claudia stared blankly ahead before looking back at Jace. “I live here, right? Close by?”

    “Yeah, across the hall.”

    “Take me there.” Claudia stood up. “I want to see, I need to.” Jace stood as well and grabbed a set off keys off a table next to the couch. They were in the hall and at the next apartment in seconds.

    “You gave me a key in case of emergencies. And, uh, now I’m letting a dead woman into her apartment.” Jace mumbled to himself. In a moment he had the door open, and as Claudia stepped in a rush of memories came back to her, each containing her sister. Claudia headed straight for the bedroom and looked inside, too afraid to see more but not being able to stop herself from wanting to know. In the closet, if you could call a space that small as such, she could see a faded floral sundress that belonged to her sister. Claudia recalled thrifting it almost a month ago for her sibling and it was probably the youngest thing in the apartment. On the nightstand next to the bed Claudia picked up a frame, where herself and the most beautiful girl Claudia had ever seen were smiling out of.

    “Solei.” Claudia choked out. “That was her name.” It was as if saying the name of her younger sister aloud had broken a dam inside Claudia, and she collapsed onto the bed sobbing. She was drowning in grief, and her heart felt as if it would burst from the depths of her anguish. Each sob racked her body, and Claudia did not know if she would ever stop crying.

* * *

 

    Claudia cried for what felt like a lifetime, until her sobs became sniffles, and then when she was physically unable to cry anymore. The pain she felt was indescribable, and she knew she would never be whole again. She simply wished to curl up into a ball and feel nothing again, to go back to the darkness before she had woken up.

    “Claudes?” Jace’s voice came from the bedroom entrance. She looked up to see him with a glass of water in hand. Though she hadn’t paid much attention to the feelings of her physical body since she’d woken up, she could now feel the pain in her feet from walking barefoot, and the slight ache in her chest from crying so hard. She also realized how thirsty she was, and nearly drained the glass in one gulp. Her throat was a desert and there was not enough water in the world to satisfy her.

    “Are you hungry?” At the mention of food, Claudia’s stomach made it’s presence known and the never ending thirst became a ravenous need to eat. She felt guilty, thinking about food in the midst of her grieving but it could not be helped. Ever since she had gotten off the table, every emotion and need felt magnified by a thousand. She didn’t feel entirely in control, and was largely still working off of instinct.

    “Yes, I am.” Jace nodded, and disappeared. He re-entered the room with another glass of water, and a cereal bar that Claudia wolfed down. Her body barely felt the presence of the snack. Jace sat next to her on the bed, and he licked his lips. Claudia’s eyes zeroed in on the movement and a tingling sparked inside her. What would normally be an errant thought that was forgotten just as quickly as it could appear in ones head, Claudia’s body suddenly filled with lust. She grabbed Jace’s face and kissed him hungrily, pushing him down onto the bed and climbing on top of him. The stubble on his face scratched Claudia’s, and she placed her hands on his chest.

    Though Jace hadn’t paid much attention to it when she first appeared, he became very aware that Claudia was naked beneath the lab coat.

    “Whoa hey wait, Claudes.” Jace pushed her up and away from him. He watched her breath heavily, eyes half lidded. “Any other time but now would’ve been fine but I don’t think this is okay.”

    Claudia blinked once, twice, then climbed off of Jace and took a few deep breaths to help the intense desire she felt fade away. She was embarrassed by her behavior.

    “I’m sorry Jace, I didn’t mean to. It’s like I’m experiencing everything for the first time, except way more than normal.” Claudia moved further away from him and tried to reign in everything she was feeling. It was all too much at once for her.

    “It’s okay, and besides we decided it’d be best to be just friends a long time ago.” Jace turned his body towards Claudia. “So, why the hell are you here? I mean, alive here?”

    A familiar caw came from the building hallway. Claudia got up and walked back outside to see the crow still on the fire escape. Ignoring Jace calling her back, Claudia stared at the bird and her inner turmoil began to calm. In her head there was only one thing she had to do.

    “I know why. I’m going to kill the bastards who ruined the life of an innocent girl who meant the world to me. And I’m going to do it tonight.”


End file.
